Giants Finish by Limping to Victory

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Eli Manning’s first pass of the 2013 season was an interception. So was his last.

It may seem too obvious to sum up the Giants’ disastrous year with bookend turnovers by the player who is the face of the franchise, but it is hard to ignore the symmetry and the symbolism.

If there was a play that exemplified the Giants on offense this season, it was the interception, usually one batted in the air. That was precisely how Manning’s last pass was picked off Sunday afternoon.

As an added affront in a season full of insult and injury, Manning, who has started 151 consecutive N.F.L. games, left after the first-half interception with a high ankle sprain.

The Giants won the season finale against the Washington Redskins, 20-6, a game played in driving rain at MetLife Stadium, where about a quarter of the seats were occupied at the start. The Giants finished with a 7-9 record, their first losing season since 2004, when Tom Coughlin was in his first year as the coach.

But even in victory, it was a difficult and unsightly day for the home team. Manning’s injury was one of several for the Giants, the most notable being a broken leg sustained by Will Beatty, the starter at the pivotal left tackle position. If Beatty, whose right leg was bent backward awkwardly in a collision, faces a protracted recovery, it would complicate an expected overhaul of the Giants’ offensive line.

Within minutes of the game’s end, the focus turned to who among the Giants would return next season. That included Coughlin, who declined to address his future with the team. He did answer questions about the 2014 team as if he expected to help guide it.

Coughlin’s players seemed to expect him back.

“I’d be shocked,” said defensive end Justin Tuck, who had two sacks in the game to finish with 11 for the season. “You tell me somebody who does it better than he does.”

Coughlin, 67, has a season left on his contract, and the Giants’ ownership has been supportive of his leadership this season.

Elsewhere in the locker room late Sunday, where about 25 players were without contracts and effectively free agents, there was understandable uncertainty and much reflection about a season that started 0-6 and ended with a 7-3 run.

Tuck, who will be a free agent, said he believed the real Giants were the ones who played the final 10 games, but he conceded, “When we look back at this season, we’ll remember 0-6.”

Photo

Jerrel Jernigan, a bright spot for the Giants' offense on Sunday, broke free for a 49-yard touchdown in the second half.Credit
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Even Coughlin, who repeatedly said he was proud that the team had stayed together after the winless start, offered this assessment of the season: “Too little, too late.”

The game itself was an ungainly affair, full of blunders, drops and wobbly passes. Neither team compiled more than 300 yards of offense. The Redskins (3-13), led by the backup quarterback Kirk Cousins playing for Robert Griffin III, had only two first downs in the first half and did not do much better in the second half until the game was out of reach.

Manning’s injury occurred late in the first half when he was nearly sacked on a pass and took a hard hit from Washington’s Chris Baker. Manning got up but was unsteady on his feet.

He hobbled to the line of scrimmage but hardly dropped back as he passed toward tight end Brandon Myers. The throw was high — Manning has thrown high to Myers all season — and, as has happened so often this year, the pass was deflected and intercepted, this time by Josh Wilson.

Manning, who has rarely showed any effect from contact, limped off and headed to the locker room favoring his left ankle.

The turnover and the injury were emblematic of two constants in the Giants’ season: Manning, who had a career-high and franchise-record 27 interceptions, had thrown another ill-advised pass that was tipped in the air, and the Giants’ porous offensive line had exposed him to another violent hit. Perhaps not surprisingly, a disastrous season ended with Manning, who had never before left a game because of injury, in dress clothes in the locker room.

“It’s serious, but it will heal,” Manning, who was wearing a hard boot on his ankle. “I’m not worried about there being a lasting effect. I’ll have to time to rest it.”

Manning was not the only prominent Giant injured Sunday. Wide receiver Rueben Randle left with a swollen knee, and his fellow receiver Hakeem Nicks left with a sprained ankle.

Because of the incessant rain and the number of backups playing, the game had a numbing blandness typified by a scoreless first quarter. With Washington leading by 3-0 in the second quarter, the Giants’ offense came to life as the reserve wide receiver Jerrel Jernigan made an athletic, over-the-shoulder, 24-yard touchdown catch. On the Giants’ next possession, Manning connected with Nicks for a 35-yard reception deep over the middle. It was only the second time this season that Nicks, who will also be a free agent in 2014, had caught a pass inside the opponent’s 20.

Two plays later, Nicks’s season ended. He sprained his ankle and was called for offensive pass interference on the same play, stalling a drive and leading to a 34-yard Josh Brown field goal.

The third quarter was a series of turnovers as Washington had two fumbles and the Giants backup quarterback Curtis Painter was intercepted. (Fittingly, the pass was deflected.) A 49-yard touchdown on an end-around by Jernigan put the Giants ahead, 17-6, on the final play of the third quarter. Washington never seriously threatened thereafter.